What is the tree of life?
The tree of life shows how all life on earth is related. Each leaf represents a different species. The branches show how these many species evolved from common ancestors over billions of years. In our interactive tree of life you can explore the relationships between 2,235,076 species and wonder at 105,413 images on a single zoomable page.
- 2,235,076 species
- 105,413 images
Biodiversity and Conservation...
We want to help everyone appreciate biodiversity and the need to conserve it.
Red leaves on our tree of life show species known to be under threat of extinction.
Green leaves are either okay for now but might be nearly threatened.
Most leaves are grey meaning that it's not known how threatened they are.
What they say...
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Magnificent piece of software, brilliantly intuitive visualisation of the tree of life
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The best tool I’ve seen for exploring the tree of life on this planet.
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OneZoom really helps get my mind around the complexities of the tree of life.
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I showed OneZoom to my colleagues as - honestly - the most impressive visualization of scientific results I have ever come across.
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OneZoom is one of the most fascinating visualization projects I've seen in years!
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I have been telling people about how incredible OneZoom is all week!
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I love the OneZoom tool - really easy to use and the visualization is great. I've just shared it with my 13 year old, who is a science geek - he loved it and is still playing with it!
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I often use OneZoom in my class, the students love it.
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In my opinion, it is the best visualisation of evolution that's out there for the lay person.
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This will revolutionize how we teach and understand the Tree of Life. It is an invaluable tool for communicating the grand scope of life's history.
Become a sponsor...
OneZoom is a registered non-profit in the UK, all our products are available for free. 852 people like you have helped us by making donations. Their names have appeared as sponsors on 1508 leaves of our tree of life leaves of our tree of life.
Only one name per leaf so get your favourite while you can, for yourself or as a gift.
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Chili pepper
(Capsicum annuum)Sponsored forRATIO, Bulgaria — Thank you from James -
Capybara
(Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)Sponsored byKathryn Stanton Diaz — And her great family! -
Flapjack octopus
(Opisthoteuthis californiana)Sponsored byBobbi Lynn Monroe -
Common green darner
(Anax junius)Sponsored forFreyja Jonsson — Seattle, USA -
Rainbow lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus)Sponsored byLori Dair -
Marbled murrelet
(Brachyramphus marmoratus)Sponsored byNathan Borson — Icy Strait, Alaska -
Stony coral
(Porites lobata)Sponsored forDr. Kaho Hoshino Tisthammer — Kewalo Marine Lab -
Naked hanging man
(Orchis simia)Sponsored forErik Danielsson — Bagarmossen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Disc mayweed
(Matricaria discoidea)Sponsored byDaniel Lundin — Bagarmossen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Germander speedwell
(Veronica chamaedrys)Sponsored forKerstin Lundin — Björkhagen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Fireweed
(Chamaenerion angustifolium)Sponsored forEnrico Lundin — Björkhagen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Northern hedgehog
(Erinaceus europaeus)Sponsored forMina Mincheva Rosindell — visitors of her garden -
European edible abalone
(Haliotis tuberculata)Sponsored forBrian G de Carteret — in Guernsey 2017 -
Adelie penguin
(Pygoscelis adeliae)Sponsored forDaisy Stanley — from Jill, Owen and James -
Cultivated mushroom
(Agaricus bisporus)Sponsored byMike Graham — For Debbie -
Monkey-puzzle
(Araucaria araucana)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Split leaf philodendron
(Philodendron bipinnatifidum)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Madagascar palm
(Pachypodium lamerei)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Baobab
(Adansonia digitata)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Lebanon cedar
(Cedrus libani)Sponsored byJonathan Drori
What we've been up to...
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29 September 2022
Donors can now renew their support of sponsored leaves. Sponsorships are only for a four year period, however those who do not renew will remain on our tree of life for the time being. Donors will get an e-mail reminder before their sponsored leaves expire. -
22 May 2022
Thank you to On The Edge for funding our latest project: tree tours. We will bring you a collection of guided tours around our tree of life explorer. These tree tours will take you to particularly interesting parts of the tree and give you more information about evolution, biodiversity and conservation as you go. You will be able to sit back and enjoy the tree tour, or hop off and explore freely around any of the tour stops.
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6 February 2022
OneZoom version 3.6 (nickname: musical_furry_lobster) has been officially released. We now show species occurrence (distribution) maps in the popup tabs when clicking on a species, and have instructions for how to run a bespoke OneZoom version with your own images instead of, or as well as, our own pictures. There are also a few minor changes to the tree, with a more recent arrangement of the first few (archaeal) branches, and the addition of the dodo! -
14 December 2021
Announcing the publication of ‘Dynamic visualisation of million-tip trees: The OneZoom project’ out today in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. This publication accompanies OneZoom version 3.5 'Chocolate chip starfish' and explains a lot of the science behind the OneZoom project.